RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO 31st July 2012

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is down in early trading with some disappointing earnings figures weighing on the index.

Scottish engineering firm Weir fell after advising that full-year profits are likely to come in below market expectations if there is no pick-up in the upstream Oil & Gas markets.

Mexico-focused precious metals miner Fresnillo dropped after being hit by the alling price of silver and reduced ore quality, leading to a significant fall in first-half profits.

UK banking groups Barclays and RBS were fallers after earnings from their European counterparts UBS and Deutsche Bank came up short of forecasts.

Holiday Inns operator InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) fell after the findings of an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation criticised the hotel group's arrangements with two online booking agents.

UK engineering giant GKN was lower in spite of seeing profits jump in the first half as it benefitted from a broad exposure to global markets.

Heading the other way was precious metals miner Polymetal after its produced more than half a million ounces of gold equivalent in the first half of 2012, with production reaching a new high in the second quarter. Sector peer Randgold also made gains.

Xstrata was also on the up after seeing stronger second-quarter production in coal, nickel, zinc and lead compared with the first quarter.

BP posts a hefty fall of 96% in adjusted profit for the second quarter as the U.K. oil giant writes down the value of some $5 billion worth of assets, including some U.S. refineries, the suspended Liberty oil and gas project in Alaska.

Anheuser-Busch InBev's 2Q profit rises more than 35% from a year earlier, aided by price increases and a volume improvement in Brazil, one of its key markets.

Rio Tinto is cutting some jobs at its regional headquarters in Melbourne and will close an office in Sydney as it moves to contain costs, according to two people familiar with the matter.

THE FTSE 100              @ 10:00        Down          8       @      5,684 THE DOW JONES            closed          Down          2       @     13073 THE NASDAQ               closed          Down          12      @      2945







Exchange Rates GBP – USD        @      10:00              1.5686 GBP - EURO      @      10:00              1.2795